This week, the Irish media, led by RTÉ and the Irish Independent, have used wildly exaggerated figures to push abortion. When challenged, they refused to correct the misreporting, and confirmed that they are willing to use the estimates of abortion campaigners although the real numbers are easily available.
 
On Monday's Prime Time programme, Miriam O'Callaghan opened a discussion on aborting babies with foetal abnormalities by repeating claims that about 1,500 such cases are diagnosed in Ireland each year, and that an estimated 80% of those (or some 1,200 pregnancies) end in abortion in Britain.

We wrote to Prime Time the following morning to point out that official records from the British Department of Health show that estimation to be wildly incorrect.

Research shows that there are approximately 700 diagnoses of serious or fatal abnormalities made each year in Ireland. (The figure of 1500 quoted by Prime Time includes all anomalies, including minor ones.)

The reality is that only an estimated 10% of Irish parents - in only 36 cases in 2011 for example - go to Britain for an abortion because their baby had a serious or fatal anomaly.

At least 90% of Irish parents choose to continue to continue with the pregnancy and to spend every moment they can with their child.
 
We know this because the records kept by the British Department of Health  not only record all Ground E abortions on Irish women, but also record the condition diagnosed, and separate out conditions such as anencephaly, Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome),  Patau's Syndrome etc.

They show that the claim of 1,200 abortions on the grounds of fetal abnormalities is an absolutely gross overstatement, by a factor of 30 or more.
 
As you can see from the Table released by the British Department of Health below, in 2011 a total of 51 abortions were carried out on Irish women for reasons of disability -  including Down Syndrome and Spina Bifida, which are not fatal abnormalities at all. When we narrow it down to fatal or life limiting disorders then we see that the total is 36 abortions.

In 2011, for example, 8 babies with anencephaly being carried by Irish women were aborted, 7 with Edwards Syndrome, and 7 with Patau's Syndrome. In 2010, the number was higher; in 2009, it was lower.

When we sent this evidence to Prime Time they told us that: "The Termination for Medical Reasons group, who cite these statistics, work specifically with women in these circumstances and they are the ones giving an estimate of 80 per cent who choose to end that pregnancy in an abortion in the UK or elsewhere."
 
But Termination for Medical Reasons is a lobby group seeking changes to the law. RTÉ, as a publicly funded body, are obliged to verify claims, not to simply repeat them as fact.
 
The facts are contained in the data from the British Department of Health (below), but since when did RTÉ ever let facts get in the way of some abortion spin. Mothers and babies deserve better.

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